Dear Mom,
I hope you get this letter, as there’s not much time to write,
1st Sgt gave the orders to send letters home tonight.
We’re ‘camped’ out in the desert, ‘on alert’ for those ‘bad guys’,
While on patrol this evening, a star fell from the sky.
It brought back many memories of when I was just a child,
How far these boots have traveled; each step, a ‘hundred’ miles.
Yes, I’m eating healthy and am ‘well as well can be’,
Tho’ days are long and tiring and most nights we just can’t sleep.
Every now and then, we get the hometown news,
‘Garbage’ mostly printed; why can’t they write our truths?
If I live to ninety, I’ll never understand,
How lives can be ‘discarded’ when blood falls in the sand.
The politics are sickening for, this ain’t ‘Bush’s war’,
When evil hit our Country, we vowed to stand in force.
Some say we came for oil, well, oil I haven’t found,
Those WMD’s that’s missing? We find them in the ground!
For those who doubt our reasons, the ‘whys’ we’re in this war?
Mom, I just can’t help it, but it hurts me to the core.
I’ve lost so many buddies, men who gave their all,
They died for God and Country and freedom’s glorious call.
I often think of Dad; how he never talked of war,
But now I know his ‘demons’, for us he gladly bore.
You probably never saw me as I watched you kneel and pray,
Mom, I’ll have to tell you, I asked to take his place.
Some fifteen years since ‘Taps’ echoed all around,
You held me oh, so tightly, when they lowered Daddy down.
I looked into the eyes of a braver man than me,
For, a Flag he gave to you became a distant memory.
Mom, you did your best and I hope you’re proud of me,
I had to take a stand and fight for hope and peace.
Thanks for all the letters and the boxes most of all,
It’s a sad & lonely feeling when a Soldiers’ name ain’t called.
Say ‘hi’ to all the family and I’ll be home when I can,
Give thanks for all the ‘Angels’ who watch over this young man.
I send to you my heart and hope you feel the beat,
Each one, a clear reminder of dreams I hope to keep.
Well, Mom, it’s 3 months later, my letter missed the flight,
All ‘hell’ broke loose when closing that distant starry night.
I asked a friend to hold it, to see it got through to you,
One day I’d like to talk about the battles we’ve gone through.
If ‘old Joe’, the mailman, still makes his rounds so late,
I know you’ve stopped to read this just inside the gate.
The sun is slowly setting; you’re straining in the gloom,
Lift your eyes towards Heaven, for I’m sleeping in my room!!!!